


Only Human

by kesomon



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-01
Updated: 2007-04-01
Packaged: 2018-08-20 07:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8241811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kesomon/pseuds/kesomon
Summary: There's very little in the universe that can be considered Coincidence when you're a Lord of Time. The Doctor's musings, in the wake of The Enemy Within.





	

"Oh no, not again."

A plaintive gaze flickered up from the pages of the book in the young man's hands, focusing on the old record player which seemed simply refuse to work properly. The same few notes of the music kept repeating themselves, skipping over and over, just as they had when he had been in his Seventh life. Now his short, greying hair and bright brown eyes had literally been given a new lustre, replaced through regeneration with the dark, reddish brown curls and blue eyes of this...somewhat Victorian man he was now.

It was almost hard to believe that only 48 hours before, he had been on his way home to Gallifrey, the ashes of his old enemy and once-friend, the Master, locked safely away in a funerary box in the clock room. That skipping record had been the start of the trouble that night. Uncrossing his feet from the footstool they were propped on, the Doctor rose from the worn old armchair. The well-read novel thumped to the surface of the tea table at its side as he crossed the short distance to the record player; the words _'The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells'_ shone out from the faded red cover in the warm, low light illuminating the small sitting area.

Replacing the needle from its faulty track on the copy of Puccini's _'Madame Butterfly,'_ the Doctor turned about, gazing wistfully around the sheer massiveness of the room in which he stood. The low hum of the TARDIS time rotor whirred comfortingly in his ears as he leaned against the control console of his old timeship.

"Glad you're feeling better ol' girl," He murmured softly, patting the carved wood surface of the console gently. "The Master really ran us both for a spell there. Though it was clever of him, using my eyes..." He trailed away with a sigh, curiously tilting his head. "Human eyes...I really wonder how that happened..." He lifted his fingers to his face with a small smile adorning his lips.

Half-human on his mother's side. He knew that little remark he'd made to the scientist at the atomic clock gala had only been an attempt to shrug him off; time had been pressing, after all. But even if the truth behind it was nonexistant, it had turned out to be rather ironic. This regeneration had quite a few genetic similarities to the humans he'd grown so fond of over the centuries, it was no small surprize that, somehow, his eyes had developed the same structure as their own.

Then there had been that kiss. A moment of delight as his memories had flooded back, and he had let Grace share that ecstatic joy. He could still taste her on his lips, almost like soft cinnamon. While he was somewhat ashamed, loosing his cool like that, he didn't have any qualms about it. Perhaps he had been around them for a tad too long.

Then again...

He smiled again, a soft chuckle escaping with that gentle Liverpool accent as he turned about, setting the TARDIS into a stable hover, and returned to his chair, settling back with a hum of appreciation, and picking up _'The Time Machine'_ once more.

Oh to be human again, if only for a moment more.


End file.
